Everything A Woman Needs To Know To Play And Win The "Is It Healthy?" Game

The severity of key risk factors for heart disease, diabetes and stroke appears to increase more rapidly in the years leading up to menopause, rather than after. New research in Journal of the American Heart Association, the Open Access Journal of the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association.

The risk factors, together known as metabolic syndrome, include a large waistline, high triglyceride (a blood fat) levels, low HDL (the “good” cholesterol) levels, high blood pressure and high blood sugar when fasting. Paying attention to food quality and what’s in the processed foods being consumed is a good first step to avoiding some of these risk factors. There’s lot’s of evidence pointing to food as highly effective medicine for reducing risk..Eat it to stay well. Or take prescription drugs along with their known side effects. Leaching nutrients leading to malnutrition pose significant risks. Eat your way out of heart disease and stroke risk.
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Exercise is good. Did we need another study to tell us that? Maybe we should be talking about bio-identical hormone replacement therapy instead of how exercise helps mitigate synthetic hormone replacement drug therapy.

Women don’t need to run marathons or do intense aerobics to reduce their stroke risk. Moderate-intensity exercise — such as brisk walking or playing tennis — may do the trick, according to research presented at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference 2014.

“I was surprised that moderate physical activity was most strongly associated with a reduced risk of stroke,” said Sophia Wang, Ph.D., the study’s lead author and professor in the department of population sciences within the Beckman Research Institute at the City of Hope in Duarte, Calif. “More strenuous activity such as running didn’t further reduce women’s stroke risk. Moderate activity, such as brisk walking appeared to be ideal in this scenario.”

The study found that moderate exercise also helps offset the increased stroke risk seen with postmenopausal women taking menopausal hormones, but not completely.

Researchers analyzed information from the 133,479 women in the California Teachers Study to see how many suffered a stroke between 1996 and 2010. Those who reported doing moderate physical activity in the three years before enrolling in the study were 20 percent less likely than women who reported no activity to suffer a stroke. “The benefits of reducing risk of stroke were further observed among the group of women who had a sustained moderate level of physical activity over time,” she said.

Postmenopausal women taking menopausal hormone therapy had more than a 30 percent higher risk of stroke than women who never used menopausal hormone therapy. After the women stopped taking hormones, their risk began to diminish. (They still rerain from distinguishing bio-identical hormones from the synthetic hormones shown to cause problems – unlike bio-identical hormones).

“The effects of physical activity and hormone therapy appear immediate and the benefits of physical activity are consistent in premenopausal and postmenopausal women,” Wang said. Therefore, Wang recommends that women incorporate some type of physical activity into their daily routine. “You don’t have to do an extreme boot camp. The types of activities we’re talking about are accessible to most of the population.” Power walking and recreational tennis, for example, do not necessarily require special memberships to gyms.

The study also found that women with diabetes had elevated stroke risk, although this group encompassed women who also were overweight. “Physical activity, obesity and diabetes are all highly correlated with one another,” Wang said. “Stroke prevention among diabetics is thus a particularly important scientific question to address.”

Although 87 percent of the women were white, Wang said she believes the study’s results may also apply to women in other racial/ethnic groups because the amount of stroke risk reduction was so robust. Further studies are needed to determine how much moderate exercise helps those with diabetes avoid strokes.

Heart disease may put older postmenopausal women at higher risk for decreased brain function such as dementia, according to new research in Journal of the American Heart Association.

“Our study provides further new evidence that this relationship (between heart disease and dementia) does exist, especially among postmenopausal women,” said study author Bernhard Haring, M.D., M.P.H., clinical fellow in the Comprehensive Heart Failure Center and the Department of Internal Medicine I at the University of Würzburg in Germany. “And many different types of heart disease or vascular disease are associated with declining brain function.”

Researchers, conducting neurocognitive exams on nearly 6,500 U.S. women ages 65-79 who had healthy brain function at the start of the study, found:

Postmenopausal women with heart disease or vascular disease were 29 percent more likely to experience cognitive decline over time compared with women without heart disease.

The risk for cognitive decline was approximately double among women who had a heart attack compared with those who had not had a heart attack.

Women who had heart bypass surgery, carotid endarterectomy (surgical removal of a blockage in a neck artery) or peripheral artery disease were at greater risk for cognitive decline.

Risk factors such as high blood pressure and diabetes increased risk for cognitive decline over time.

Obesity didn’t notably increase cognitive decline in elderly women.

“Women with heart disease — in particular women who have had a heart attack, bypass surgery, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, peripheral vascular disease or carotid endarterectomy — should be monitored by their doctors for potential cognitive decline,” Haring said. “It is also very important to adequately manage heart disease risk factors such as high blood pressure and diabetes.”

Dementia is an increasingly significant problem in developed countries, so researchers said more study is warranted on how preventing cardiovascular disease may preserve cognitive health.

Most women will experience menopause on average for 4 to 7 years. During this time women can experience many distressing symptoms. These include night sweats, hot flashes, insomnia, mood swings, vaginal dryness and others. There are numerous natural products that support menopause with varying degrees of success. I am pleased to introduce you to EstroG-100. EstroG-100 is a unique blend of 3 herbal extracts from South Korea and may be the most effective natural product for menopausal support I have found.

In this interview we will discuss the origin of EstroG-100 and in what ways it is helpful for women during menopause. Studies with EstroG-100 have shown that 70% of women in the study experienced some relief within 7 to 10 days. This is significantly faster than other natural menopausal remedies. EstroG-100 was also shown to be effective for 8 of the 10 major symptoms of menopause without side effects. You can read more about this study at this link at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). EstroG-100 works quickly and on the widest range of symptoms taking only 1 capsule per day. Side effects and adverse events are virtually non-existent. You can learn more about Estro-G-100 at HeliosCorp.net.

About Michael Jeffers

Michael Jeffers is the President of Helios Corp. Helios is the company that researched, developed and did clinical studies on EstroG-100.

CHICAGO—Nutritional supplements, along with diet, exercise and stress management, can help women feel their best as they enter perimenopause and menopause, according to Tori Hudson, N.D., clinical professor, National college of Naturopathic Medicine, and director, A Woman’s Time Clinic, who spoke at the eighth annual Natural Health Research Institute (NHRI) symposium.

As a practitioner, Dr. Hudson said her primary job with perimenopasue and menopause patients is to make them feel better, reducing symptoms such as hot flashes, while not increasing the risk of other diseases. This is where plant medicine can shine.

Dr. Hudson said black cohosh (Cimicifuga racemosa) is the most researched plant for menopause symptoms with more than 100 published scientific papers and presentations. Black Cohosh does not have estogenic action and does not contain phytoestrogens, which is why it is thought to be safe in breast cancer patients.

Most of the black cohosh studies show 50-percent reduction in hot flash symptoms or more, and some show mood support, she said. She mentioned a 2004 in vitro study that found isopropanolic black cohosh extract was safe for women with a history of breast cancer (Menopause. 2004 May-Jun;11(3):281-9.) And a 2007 study showed is was associated with a 61-percent reduction in breast cancer risk (Int. J. Cancer 2007; 120:1523-1528).

Ginseng is another herb Dr. Hudson uses in menopausal patients. She noted a 2012 study found red ginseng reduced menopause symptoms significantly, including hot flashes (Menopause 2012;19(4):461-466). This study also found it decreased total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. Dr. Hudson cautioned that ginseng could cause insomnia, so she recommends her patients take it in the morning.

In a 2006 study, Dr. Hudson said 100 mcg of hops significantly decreased menopause symptoms after six weeks, but not after 12 (Maturitas. 2006 May 20;54(2):164-75). She said she recommends hops for help with menopause, but doesn’t rely on it alone; instead, she combines it with other menopause-helping ingredients.

While Dr. Hudson noted some reports have shown kava can be associated with liver damage, she said doses of up to 210 mg kavalactones per day should be safe.

Kudzu (Pueraria mirifica) may be growing all over the southern United States, but it also helps women as they enter menopause, Dr. Hudson explained. A 2007 study found 20, 30 or 50 mg/d of kudzu decreased vaginal dryness in women with menopause after 12 weeks (Menopause. 2007 Sep-Oct;14(5):919-24). And in 2011, a study found 25 and 50 mg/d increased sexual health in menopausal women (Arch Gynecol Obstet. 2011 Aug;284(2):411-9). However, Dr. Hudson noted kudzu is rich in phytoestrogens, so she avoids using it in breast cancer patients

Red clover, an isoflavone extract, works mildly Dr. Huson said. She said doesn’t use it much because it’s hit and miss. However, she noted a 2010 study found red clover extract with 80 mg of isoflavones, reduced anxiety and depression in postmenopausal women (Maturitas. 2010 Mar;65(3):258-61).

Dr. Hudson covered Sibiric rhubarb(Rheum rhaponticum), an herb that’s currently only sold to professionals. A 2006 study found 250 mg of the botanical reduced hot flashes and anxiety, and increased well-being (Menopause. 2006 Sep-Oct;13(5):744.-59)